Photo by Morton Katz
Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam’s Floating Fishing Village
Having served in Viet Nam as a soldier in 1966-67, I was eager to revisit Viet Nam. Of course, in wartime I could not experience North Viet Nam and the Hanoi region’s Gulf of Tonkin, with its Unesco World Heritage site: Ha Long Bay.
Many memories surfaced as I returned to Viet Nam. But what struck me the most was the beauty of the country, and the surprising welcome I received from the people, generations removed from the suffering of war, on both sides.
This image was taken February 11, 2011 at 5:00 PM as the all-day mist suddenly dissipated and the sky burst with the amazing colors of sunset. Ha Long’s spectacular seascape was sculpted by nature. Limestone karsts weathered over millennium into more than a thousand islands. The bay is inhabited by families who live all of their lives on floating rafts, and fish on the boats pictured.
Ha Long means ‘descending dragons’ as the limestone islands appeared to resemble undulating bodies of dragons to the early Vietnamese.
Post processing notes:
I have been using On1 for ten years now, and am constantly purchasing new versions (8 so far) with unexpected tools. Since On1 is so easy to play with, make changes and remove experiments that might not have worked, I can not recall this particular image's history, over several iterations.Exif information:
| Copyright: | Morton Katz |
| Camera: | NIKON D80 |
| Aperture: | f/4 |
| Focal Length: | 26mm |
| ISO: | 320 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/400 sec. |
| Created: | February 11, 2011 02:53:07 |